Extraction [Cody, Scarlet, Rose, Amanda]

[Cody Force]

 "If you only do one thing, make sure Amanda and Rose are safe."

Alexander's voice rang through Cody's ears above the Daft Punk pumping out of his earbuds as he guided his black 2010 Yamaha R1 through the streets. Amanda had chosen Alexander and Samantha as surrogate parents for herself, much to Cody's chagrin. Of course he couldn't be the brother and the mother and father, naturally, and so his sister had imprinted herself on the duo like a baby duck. It meant his little sister was growing up, but worse, it meant that she'd also gotten close to Alexander's girlfriend Rose, which meant that she'd gone to stay with Rose as soon as this had started happening. She'd left as soon as the first calls had started coming in, and when he couldn't find her, he'd stopped Samantha and Alexander before they left.

"I can't find Amanda," he confessed. "I think she's with Rose."

The look on Samantha's face plainly said that they had already received orders, but Alexander grabbed him by the sleeve of his jacket as they'd run out to the parking garage.

"Bring them back here," he'd ordered. Technically, though they were both Level 5 hunters, Alexander out-ranked him in some unspoken rule of hierarchy. He avoided Dev on his way out, literally sprinting to his motorcycle and taking off. Onyx's job was to extract family, so that was what he was going to do. Nevermind that it was his own. Amanda was a trainee, though, and Rose was human - shit, they were both human. Amanda could hold her own, but she was still a trainee, and she'd a false sense of security up until this point. He didn't want that bubble broken just yet, and he knew that he couldn't let them down. Any of them.

Where would they be? he wondered. Amanda wouldn't have let Rose go home, so she'd have brought her back to her own apartment. Stupid. Of course that would be the first place Midnight teams would look, and in fact they'd already started taking out homes. He just hoped he had enough time to get them out of there before it was too late.

It was in the dead of the night, and so he did what any red-blooded man would do, and rode his bike straight through the front door of her apartment, parking it in the lobby. He hit the elevator with his gear on, glad that the security shift had apparently taken the night off. He could feel his narrow window of time closing around him.

[Amanda Force]

 Amanda had been planning to meet Rose after work, but their dinner plans had been cut short when Rose was called to work late. Amanda had fallen asleep in her room, only to wake up to a loud pounding on her door. She jumped up and flung it open to find Casey dashing away. She opened her mouth to yell something, but she realized that Casey was banging on everyone's door, waking them all up. She shook the haze of a few hours' sleep off of her brain and grabbed her bag. Something was happening.

She grabbed another trainee, Irene, who was booking down the hall. "Hey, what's going on?" she demanded.

Irene half-turned, walking backwards quickly. "Midnight's attacking," she explained. "Your brother's already moving. You need to get with the rest of the trainees and find out what they need you to do." And with that, she turned and ran down the hall.

Amanda stood, stunned in her doorway, and then turned back into her room and grabbed a quick bag. When she emerged, she pinned herself to the wall to avoid the oncoming traffic. She absolutely did not group up with the rest of the trainees, which was going to get her chewed later on, but she called Rose on her way out.

"Hey sweetie, have you talked to Alex? I know what time it is, I'm sorry. Listen, I'm on my way, and I need you to be ready when I get to your apartment, okay? If Alex calls, tell him I have it covered. I'll explain later, I promise. Just do what I'm saying for right now."

She got into the garage and jumped into her car, a dark blue Mustang, and ripped out before someone could stop her. When she got to Rose's apartment, the girl was, thank God, sitting on the couch with a small overnight bag packed.

[Marisol Ramirez]

 Rose hadn't gotten off of work until like, midnight. She was pissed that she'd had to miss her dinner date with Amanda, but only because Alex had gotten to see a movie with Samantha. She didn't resent Samantha at all, but it did tick her off a little when her own plans got canceled and she couldn't see her boyfriend because he had a sense of obligation to keep his plans. She had no idea why Isabelle and Justin had needed her at work so late, because as far as she could tell, there hadn't been much to do. Regardless, she'd gone home and gone to bed shortly before one, only to have her phone go off at three.

Amanda was talking so fast Rose had to get her to slow down.

"No, I haven't talked to Alex. Amy, do you know what time it is? Wait, why are you on your way? Alex is probably already asleep - hey, quit cutting me off! Why do I need to pack a bag! Darnit, Amanda!" And she got hung up on. Rose stared at her phone, then scrolled through her calls. No, nothing from Alex. What the fluff?

She ambled to her closet and packed a bag, thinking that this was some stupid joke she was now a part of, and then dragged it out to her couch. Luckily she had done laundry so she had clean clothes for once, and she sat there in jeans and a knit sweater, half-awake and waiting with wild anxiety for Amy.

When her friend finally got there, she practically yanked her out of the apartment. Her brown eyes were wild.

"Listen, we've got to go. I'm taking you to my apartment for a few days. I can't explain it, but we're not safe. You can call Alex on the way."

"Amy, come on and quit screwing around," Rose said. She plopped her bag down and stared at her. "Tell me what's going on or I'm not coming with you at all."

Amanda gave her a strong look that made Rose swallow her threat and pick up her bag. She hurried after her down the hall, wondering why Amanda kept looking around, and then gasped when she pulled out a gun. "What are you doing?" she hissed. "Put that away!"

[Amanda Force]

 Amanda relied heavily on that hard stare she had to keep Rose in line until they could get back to her apartment. When Rose started harping on her about the gun, she finally whipped around. "Listen, I will tell you when we get to the apartment, but right now, I need you to trust me." And with that, she grabbed Rose firmly by the hand and dragged her to the car.

On the way, she tried to offer a brief explanation, but she couldn't think of anything to justify this. "Something bad is happening. I just needed to get you with me so that I could watch out for you. I'm not even supposed to be here right now, but you're kind of like my sister so can we just trust that I'm not crazy until this blows over?" she asked.

Rose nodded, and the rest of the ride was in uncomfortably loud silence, punctuated by Amanda's rather booming exhaust. Once they'd gotten to her apartment, they went straight in through a service elevator that had an Out of Order sign on it and down the hall in a flash. She slammed her door and locked it with several locks, then motioned for Rose to help her push the couch in front of it.

Rose finally threw her hands up. "Okay, NOW can you tell me what's going on?"

[Cody Force]

 Cody called Amanda's phone on his sprint down the hall. He could hear their voices inside of the apartment, and when he tried to open the door, he could hear Rose practically yelling while Amanda's annoying ringtone drowned the rest of the music out.

"Open the door!" he hissed from outside, hanging up his phone.

There was a loud scuffing sound and then several metallic ones. Finally, the door opened a crack. Cody reached out and pushed it open, hitting his sister in the face as he did so. She doubled back and held her nose, then punched him in the arm.

"I can't believe you were this stupid," he barked. "Rose, get your things. Amanda, get your things. You're both following me back to Onyx."

"Onyx?" Rose piped, at the same time Amanda parroted with "Stupid?!"

"I don't have time for this. Rose. Bag. Amanda. Bag. Let's go." He turned to Rose, specifically. "Alex will meet us there," he offered, as though it would bring her reassurance.

Behind him, the ding of the elevator was heard.

Amanda froze, while Rose continued to move. With a quick snap, she reached out to still her friend's shuffling, and motioned for Cody to close the door, which he did as quietly as he could - but not before he got a glimpse of a young woman with bright reddish-pink hair stepping out and giving the hall a good lookabout.

"Fire escape," he ordered.

They went.

[Scarlet]

Elevator music made NO SENSE.  Seriously, you were already trapped in a little box, usually with other humans who were disgusting or at least unpleasant, and then you had to listen to that?  Were they trying to lull humans into a calm state?  Perhaps for the purposes of slaughtering them like cattle, or to make them docile and easy to manipulate.  Those would be interesting purposes, but she'd never seen anyone accomplish that, and she most certainly wasn't going to let it work on her.  All the elevator music did was make her more restless, bouncing on the toes of her heeled boots as she waited impatiently for her floor.

The doors opened with a cheery DING! and she exited, peeking down the hall to both sides in search of the young hunters she was sent to play with.  She caught the brief glimpse of an open door and a face glancing out, smirked, and sent off a message to Jeremiah to keep him on the same page.

It's the apartment we thought, I have the internal exit covered.

That left Jeremiah to take care of the outside, and Scarlet was just fine with that.  She sauntered up in the direction of the door, knocking lightly on it and then jerking out of the way, just in case bullets came through the door immediately after.  Hey, caution could save lives!

"Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in!" she called happily, though she wouldn't be blowing their house in.  She'd blow it up if she got frustrated, but there was a difference.  Actually, roasting a few little pigs in their house sounded like a good solution to the problem.  Why hadn't the wolf thought of that?  He'd have had his dinner and it would already have been cooked! 

Seriously!  Sometimes, she wondered what kind of idiots wrote those stories.  Obviously, not the kind of idiots who knew anything about hunting down little pigs.  Fun, tasty little pigs.

[Cody Force]

Cody didn't really expect for the door to do much good, honestly. It was all he had, though. He'd try to act as a buffer between the girls and whatever was coming through the other side for as long as he could stand it. He'd give them a fighting chance, at least. He backed away from it and turned to watch Amanda slipping through the window and onto the fire escape, her willowy figure a flurry of motion as she took both she and Rose's bags down with her.

Rose was at the window still, watching her as she climbed down. Amanda was going to have to act as a landing pad for Rose, it seemed. She was more resistant to injury and better at dropping from heights, so for her own benefit she'd know how not to break her ankle when she dropped the remaining fifteen feet the fire escape left to be desired. Rose, however - Rose would have to just drop to Amanda and hope she caught her. Which she would, of course. Not gracefully, but she could manage.

He watched as Rose's face contorted into shock, and her hands flung up in warning. Then, of course, Amanda screamed bloody murder. Cody ran to the window just in time to see Amanda flailing against a vampire who had her by her neck, dangling off of the side of the escape. He jerked his head up and smiled a grim smile at Rose and Cody.

"Coming up, plus one," was all he said with a pleasant tone.

Behind Cody, the door began to not be a door anymore. She couldn't push it open because of the shit in front of it, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't rip it down and kick the couch out of the way in a matter of seconds.

"Fuck," he hissed. He grabbed Rose and pulled her away from the window, planting his extra gun in her hands.

"She comes through that door, you shoot," he instructed.

From the fire escape, Jeremiah's voice warned, "If you shoot my friend, I'll drop your sister."

Dilemma.

Cody grabbed his phone, dialed Alex's number, and put it on speaker.

"I think we have a problem," he said, as soon as he heard Alex pick up. In the background, Amanda could be heard screaming as Jeremiah dragged her back through the window, still by her throat. He ignored Cody fully as he threw her down, through a chair which splintered.

"I'll be taking that, thanks," Jeremiah said, and yanked the gun out of Rose's hand. He discharged the round, released the magazine, and then threw both items out of the window, leaving the bullet to roll away on the floor. "Oh, are we having a three-way chat with someone?"

[Scarlet]

The little pigs didn't listen and let her in, which she wasn't surprised about, but they also didn't return with the appropriate line!  Really!!  What was wrong with them?  When there were no bullets, either (the pigs weren't supposed to have guns), she hit the top of the door with one fist in her own version of the 'cop knock'.  The difference was that when she knocked, the door splintered, and she didn't stop at a single knock.  If they weren't going to let her in, she was going to prove exactly what kind of wolf she was -- the kind that was going to rip the fuck door down to get at them. 

She'd torn the top of the door apart in time to hear the male hunter kid tell someone else to shot if 'she' came through the door, and that was enough to make her duck her head to the side (bright hair = bright target) until she heard Jeremiah inform the boy that if they shot his friend, he'd drop the sister.  His friend!  How nice! 

"Love you, too, Mistah Jay!" she called back, deliberately using a horrific New Yorker kind of accent before cackling and slipping her hand in the broken half of the door to unlock it.  It was cake from there, since pushing the door also pushed the couch in front of it out of the way once it was unlocked.  It was a nice try, but she probably could have done it even being shot at, if she'd had to.  Since she didn't, she was much happier.

Because there was no way the hunter kid was going to risk his little sister just to take a shot at Scarlet.  That would be stupid. 

"Who's on the phone?" she asked, having heard Cody tell someone that he thought they had a problem, which was the understatement of the year, and she'd definitely heard Jeremiah say something about a three-way chat.  "If there's more company on the way, it better be someone with a sense of humor.  Everyone's in such bitchy moods tonight.  HEAR THAT?  DON'T COME IF YOU'RE GONNA BE A SOURPUSS!"

She laughed again at the end, dropping the petulant, annoyed tone just as quickly as she'd picked it up.  She had dust from the door all over her, which didn't make her particularly happy, but other than brushing some of it off and then making a snatch for Rose when the girl tried to get some distance, she didn't comment on it.  "Hey there, pretty lady!  What's your name?" she asked, twining her hands through the girl's long, dark hair. 

[Marisol Ramirez]

Rose was in a total state of shock. She didn't know what to do, and she felt utterly useless because of it. Cody had told her to make for the fire escape, and when she'd gone to climb out she saw Amanda get snatched up by the throat via a vampire who had just shown up out of nowhere. When she looked back, another one was making her way in and Cody was handing her a gun.

And then Amanda got thrown across the room, and there was one less chair - and Rose didn't have the gun anymore. "Alex, Alex please - "

That was about all she got before Scarlet was yanking her hair. She didn't know if she was really supposed to answer the woman with the hair the colour of tropical punch or not, so she just sort of said nothing and looked frantically at Cody for direction. Cody was useless for the moment - he knew if he did anything, Scarlet would snap Rose's neck. There was no doubt in his head, actually, and he could tell the bitch was unstable enough that she'd snap it like a twig without thinking twice.

"Amanda," he hissed, trying to see his sister from across the room. She was crumbled in a mess half under the kitchen table and half not, and she wasn't moving. He looked at Jeremiah, his entire body shaking from rage.

"Hey, Alex, how important are these people to you?" Jeremiah asked casually. He was pulling something out of the black bag he'd been carrying, and - GOOD GOD, how many pairs of handcuffs did he have? These weren't firestone, which was probably for the better considering he'd been handling that entirely too much lately, but he knew none of the humans could break through them.

"I think we're going to play a game," Jeremiah said, looking up at Scarlet. "You had your turn. I think I want mine. Would you be my lovely assistant?" And he smiled darkly, and it was kind of fucking scary.

[Alexander Darling]

As soon as the phone rang, he knew that he'd made a huge fucking mistake.  HUGE.  MISTAKE.  He should have gone to get Rose and Amanda himself, because if Cody was calling him, especially this soon, something bad had to have happened.  Sure enough, when he answered, Cody immediately told him that they had a situation, and Amanda screaming in the background was obvious to Alexander's ears.  He didn't hear Rose, but that might have been a good thing -- it might have meant that she wasn't hurt, yet.

Of course, it wasn't long at all before he heard a male voice, one that he didn't recognize, followed by a female who may have actually been familiar, though she sounded like she was cracked.  Then Rose, begging him for help and the male voice again, calling him by name because Rose had. 

"I'll be there," he snapped, and though that wasn't a direct response about how important these people were to him, it was enough.  He was going there, they knew he was, and he really didn't have a choice.  He couldn't risk Cody and Amanda by not showing up, and he couldn't STAND the idea that Rose might be hurt.  "Don't harm them, I'll be there for your game."

It was stupid, he knew it, to just show up and hope that he could talk these psychopaths into letting the other three go, but he didn't think that he could just bust in there and save them without putting one of them into serious danger.  That meant he'd have to try something else, and he hung up the phone suddenly so that he could address Samantha.  He had no doubt that she'd gathered what was going on, but he still had to give her a quick run-down.

"Two vampires, at least, and they have Cody, Amanda and Rose.  I'm going, I suggest you don't or that you keep your distance.  I'm going to try to get the three of them out if you can provide them with an exit?" he asked, glancing her way briefly before returning his eyes to the road as he took a turn towards Amanda's apartment.  He already didn't think this was going to go well, which was why he didn't want Samantha going in.  That would just be one more person he cared for in the line of fire, and the whole point right then was to get them OUT of danger. 

[Samantha Santos]

Samantha didn't really have a choice. She drew her knees up to her chest as much as she was able to, which wasn't much considering she was so goddamn tall. She could hear what was going on through the phone, but even if she wasn't able to, she could tell by the tension in Alexander's voice and the way his face was scrunching up.

"Do we know who's with them yet?" she asked finally. "I might be able to provide an exit, but I want to know what I'm walking into," she added. She shifted to the left and looked at Alex, a brow lofted. "Can you give me anything to go on?"

She had a particular Therreyan who owed her a favour, and this would be worth calling it in on, but she couldn't call her blind.

[Scarlet]

"Sounds like they're important," Scarlet chirped, twisting Rose's head around just a little more and grinning as 'Alex' swore that he was going to be there for the game.  Fantastic!  The more the merrier, of that she was certain, and Jeremiah only made that more clear when he said that he wanted to play his own game, pulling out another pair of handcuffs.  God, that black bag of his was amazing.  She had to wonder what else he had in there, which meant that she might have to raid it sometime, just to see.  That was, if she didn't get to see during his game.

His lovely assistant?  She giggled, dragging poor Rose behind her as she approached the other vampire, making it a point to give his dark, scary smile a coy look.  "You sure do know how to charm a lady, sir.  Of course I will."

She turned her attention back to Rose for an instant, a bit disappointed that she hadn't gotten an answer when she'd asked for a name.  She invaded the girl's mind, looking for the information and trying to determine if it was Jeremiah's fault that she hadn't answered, but it wasn't.

Rose Quick, this Alex fellow was her boyfriend, and she worked for...oh shit.

"We have a situation, Jeremiah," she said, voice suddenly shockingly serious for her, and she pursed her lips together.  This was NOT fun.  This one?  She works for Justinian and Iloquil.  Didn't they put out a no touchie rule on their people?

Yes, they had.  Damn it.

We could just tie her up and let her watch.  Think that'll do the trick?

It better, because she did NOT want to tangle with Justinian again.  That had NOT worked in her favor, if she remembered correctly, and though she didn't, she remembered THAT part.  She was pretty sure that he'd break her in half if she fucked something up and pissed him off again, and though she wasn't prone to being afraid of other vampires, she wasn't interested in being broken in half.

[Alexander Darling]

He wished he had more information to give Samantha on this one, but his helpfulness seemed to have failed on this one.  Of course, because he CARED about this one.  Damn it!

"I don't know the male vampire, his voice wasn't at all familiar," he started, and he didn't know why he'd know the female, either, but she DID seem familiar.  He got the impression of RED where she was concerned, but he didn't know why.  Red like blood?  Yes, that too, like he'd seen her hurt before, but was that so surprising?  He must have been a hunter or something before he'd lost his memory, because he'd already been trained when he went to Dev.  She was a vampire, perhaps he'd run into her before.  That wasn't it, though.  Red.  Why red?

Red hair?

It sounded right, somehow, but 'red' wasn't quite the color, was it?  Not crimson, either.  Scarlet.  Scarlet!

"I think the female goes by 'Scarlet', I think," he told Samantha, features scrunched a little just from trying to work it out in his mind.  It was strange how some things came so easily, without him even trying.  It was like the harder he tried to uncover something, the faster the sand rushed back over it all, obscuring it from his view.  Frustrating, much?  "I don't think she was this crazy last time, though.  I don't really remember."

Seriously, he wanted to hit something.  Why couldn't he just remember?!  Samantha and Rose, Cody and Amanda, they were all at risk, and if he could just remember a few things, he could up the chances that they'd all survive, but could he?  Not a chance. 

[Jeremiah Talbot]

Jeremiah grabbed Cody and planted him down in one of the chairs that was still standing, then hand-cuffed him to it. He looked up at Scarlet with a half-smirk still on his face, and slipped something across his hand. He then whipped around and hit Cody in the face - once, twice, three times. Vampires hit like full-sized SUVs, too, and Jeremiah wasn't exactly going easy on him. And then, of course, there were the fucking brass knuckles he'd put on to aid him in his quest of facial deconstruction.

By the time he was done, Cody was bleeding pretty badly.

"That ought to keep him quiet for a little while we get set up," he said. As he dragged Amanda by the feet across the floor, where she was still not conscious (which was really bad, since humans were in serious shit if they were out for longer than five minutes, contrary to what bullshit movies projected). He'd just lifted her up into a chair when Scarlet started beaming into his brain.

"Oh," was all he said. He paused in mid-click of Amanda's handcuffs, and then grinned. "We're not going to hurt Rose. We're not even going to touch her. She's the star of this entire operation." And then he smiled up at Rose, and it was that demon-face again - which would cause Scarlet to laugh, but caused Rose great fear, so much so that she tried to turn and bury her face into Scarlet's shoulder to avoid looking at him. Yeah, she'd run to whoever would beat her less severely, and right now that was Scarlet. Dumbass.

Jeremiah knelt down and began pulling other shit from his bag. Long, thick needles - they were between knitting needles and fucking railroad spikes judging from their diameter, actually - and then came other odds and ends. Mostly, wires. Lots of wires. He went to Amanda, and then began the ultimate creep ritual. With two of the needles securely clenched in one fist, he knelt on one knee, half-standing but not quite, and placed his other hand gently on her cheek.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked, his brows fixed in a position of worry. "Amanda, can you hear me?" His tone was convincing.

[Amanda Force]

Amanda was lulled back to consciousness by someone gently shaking her. She was - she didn't know. She'd been doing something important, and she got the impression she had fallen into something after that - and now she wasn't quite sure. "Mmmnnh," she moaned, eyes still closed but squinted in pain. Her fucking head, it felt like she'd been hit with a bat.

"Can you hear me?"

It was a man's voice. She didn't recognize it, but it sounded concerned. It wasn't her brother - was it another hunter? She couldn't be sure. She felt her head roll back as she ebbed back into darkness, but he shook her more.

"Amanda, you need to stay awake. You've taken a bad fall. We need to get you to a hospital."

"Okay...." she whispered, her voice pained. She opened her eyes and tried to lean forward, but she fell short and realized she was stuck. She shook her arms, and then it clicked - she was stuck. She was stuck to the fucking chair. In her apartment. And Cody was across from her, also in a chair - and bleeding. And the man talking to her? That had been the asshole that had started all of this.

"Oh, GOD!" she shouted, jerking away from Jeremiah. He laughed, and it was a very full and joyful laugh. She tried to shy away from him as much as possible, so much so that she almost tipped the chair over, but he grabbed it and planted the legs firmly on the ground before she could manage.

"NOT so fast," he warned. "We're going to play a game, you and your brother and I. Tell me, sweetheart, how much do you trust that girl right there?" he asked. He leaned down behind the chair, empty hand on her chin as he forced her to look at Rose, who was utterly terrified. "Do you trust her with your life? With his?"

"I don't understand - " she stammered.

"JUST ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION!" he commanded.

"I - yes, yes, I trust her!" she yelled.

"Perfect."

And then he jammed the needles into the top of her thighs, and she screamed. He did the same to Cody, who screamed, but less so - probably because he had been pained in the face previously. It didn't matter. Jeremiah started tracing the wires to a box, and the box to the wall, where he stuck a plug into the outlet. He looked at Rose with a very serious expression.

"I'm going to ask you things, and you're going to answer me," he informed her. There was absolutely no trace of amusement in his face or voice. He looked at Scarlet. "Assistant, if you'd be so kind as to make our contestant comfortable?" Translation: Hold her ass down on the couch so she can't run off.

I think I can break her before Alex gets here, he admitted to Scarlet. If not, I'll get fucking close. And technically, it's not touching.